British-Nigerian, Kemi Badenoch, retained her seat in North West Essex despite Conservative Party’s catastrophic night in UK’s general election.
Badenoch was the Secretary of State for Business and Trade in Rishi Sunak’s cabinet that has now been sacked by the Labour Party.
She won the North West Essex seat after a tight race.
Badenoch received 19,360 votes – 35.6 per cent of the overall votes, which is a decrease of 26.1 per cent from her previous majority.
Labour candidate Issy Waite received 16,750 votes, while Reform UK’s Grant StClair-Armstrong received 7,668 votes, despite resigning from his party after it was discovered he had previously encouraged people to vote for the far-right British National Party (BNP).
According to Salffron Walden Reporters, Liberal Democrat Smita Rajesh received 6,055 votes and Green candidate Edward Gildea received 2,846 votes.
Independent candidate Andrew David Green received 852 votes, fellow independent Erik Bonino received 699 votes and independent candidate Niko Omilana received 156.
There was a 68 per cent voter turnout in the constituency, which was previously named Saffron Walden.
Kemi Badenoch has served as the MP for Saffron Walden since 2017.
Born on January 2, 1980 in Wimbledon, London, Badenoch is one of three children born to Nigerian Yoruba parents.
Her father, Femi Adegoke, was a GP and her mother, Feyi Adegoke, was a professor of physiology. She has a brother and a sister.
Badenoch spent her childhood living in Lagos, Nigeria, and in the United States, where her mother lectured. She returned to the UK at the age of 16 to live with a friend of her mother’s owing to the deteriorating political and economic situation in Nigeria, which had affected her family.
Although a British citizen and born in the UK, during her parliamentary maiden speech Badenoch stated that she was “to all intents and purposes a first-generation immigrant.”
